You know what you don’t have? Enough things to give you the creeps. Here’s a brand-new one for you.

When I was writing the Unspooky Saturday edition of the Mujina story (a Mujina, if you don’t feel like clicking the link, is a magical badger that particularly likes to prank people by appearing as a faceless human), I happened upon this tidbit from the Wikipedia article about the Mujina:

On May 19, 1959, Honolulu Advertiser reporter Bob Krauss reported a sighting of a mujina at the Waialae Drive-In Theatre in Kahala. Krauss reported that the witness watched a woman combing her hair in the women’s restroom, and when the witness came close enough, the mujina turned, revealing her featureless face. The witness was reported to have been admitted to the hospital for a nervous breakdown.

Ever since running across that anecdote, if I enter a public restroom and find another woman at the sink I wonder briefly if she might whip around and be all faceless.

Good luck getting that out of your head.

If you have similar silly and unreasonable fears, share ’em in the comments!

4 Responses

When I was young my brother and some friends and I played Bloody Mary at their house. We didn’t see anything in the mirror, but the rest of the day was terrible. My dog got loose from his chain, ran over to the house we were playing at, and attacked their sheep. It was so unlike him, and we weren’t exactly sure how he had found us in the first place.
Years later I was babysitting for a young couple at the same house. I tried to change the channel from an old black and white werewolf film, but it wouldn’t work. I couldn’t even get the tv to turn off. I tried using their phone to call my mom, but it was dead. No dial tone or anything. I checked on the kids and they were fine, but I was scared out of my mind. I had to use the bathroom, but once I saw they had a mirror on the door like my friends’ family used to, there was no way I could go in. I refuse to go in that house. Or look in a mirror unless the light is on.

I still turn on the bedside light, then turn off the overhead light in the bedroom because I don’t like stepping near the edge of my bed in the dark. I’m totally sure that some day, something will grab my toes. If I must have get into bed in a dark room, I’ll generally take a flying leap. I also dislike mirrors in the dark, especially the bathroom one. I actually don’t have any other mirrors in the house except for the ones in the bathroom. When I was in high school, it took me the better part of the year to go into our garage after playing with a Ouija board in there and conversing at length with “Za.” Lastly, the basement in that house generally creeped me out, and it was about the least creepy basement I’ve ever been in. It was carpeted in red halfway up the walls, the rest was paneling. We had furniture down there and a pool table and I was certain that little green men and a sailor-ghost in a yellow slicker and hat (like something off Scooby Doo) was going to stroll out of the room with the water heater.

The only time I’ve really had the heebie jeebies was as a kid staying with my grandparents. My grandparents used to live in a house they built outside of town. It had that long hallway with the bedrooms off of it and the only bathroom in the house at the end. With no street lights in the area and the only night light in the bathroom, those bedrooms got really dark. So dark that as a kid, I swear to this day that I could see things moving in those rooms as I made my way to the bathroom. Still, as an adult, I was glad they sold that house and moved a few years back!